


Noticeable Pains

by ried (riiiied)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Hiding an Injury or Illness, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-21 00:12:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16565834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riiiied/pseuds/ried
Summary: Yakov's divorce had been distracting him to the point of almost not noticing an injury Victor was nursing before it was too late.





	Noticeable Pains

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Allekha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allekha/gifts).



> Thanks to lileura for beta-ing!

“One more time!”

Clapping once, Yakov shouted in the direction of where Victor had just finished another repetition of the step sequence for his new short. Domestic test skates were coming up, and while they weren’t the biggest domestic events, they would be good testing grounds for performing new programs in front of a wider audience.

And Yakov himself desperately wanted something else to occupy his thoughts.

Loathe as he was to admit it, his separation with Lilia still affected him even now. It distracted him when he should be focusing on his students. Left him restless during what little time he had to rest. Caused him to be under the weather intermittently - but unless he was contagious, he would still go do his coaching. To stay working would be better for his mind. At least he expected so - needed it to be, even.

The music rewinded to where the step sequence should start, and Yakov turned his eyes towards Victor. Ever since he stepped up into the senior ranks, Victor had been increasingly involved in the choreography for his program, and for the past couple of seasons he had skated to programs fully choreographed by himself. This season’s short was the same. Judges and fans alike loved Victor’s work. Victor himself always seemed motivated to continually perfect his craft, and this time was no different. Every movement had attention and detail put behind it, punctuated even more the more he outgrew childhood, and at times Yakov could see hints of Lilia in his movement - but that was simply a leftover from when Lilia used to choreograph his programs.

It was early in the season, and while that was no excuse to slack, rough corners were to be expected in the run-through. Still, even for the standards of this point of the season, some of Victor’s steps seemed to lack his usual sharpness and depth. Yakov started narrowing his eyes at Victor’s blades, at the movement of his feet, his ankles, his legs - and having paid more attention, it was obvious that something wasn’t quite right.

“Stop!”

Victor seemed surprised at being called, but continued his run-through, although with a slightly confused expression on his face.

“ _Stop!_ ”

At the repeated command, Victor finally aborted his step sequence and skated towards the rinkside, where Yakov was waiting with arms crossed in front of his chest.

“What’s wrong, Yakov?”

“I should be asking you that,” Yakov said, a deep frown on his face. “What happened to your feet?”

“My feet?” Victor’s eyes shot wide open. “There’s nothing wrong with my feet.”

“Don’t lie. Even considering how few times you’ve gone through the programs, the edges on your steps are way too shallow. You yourself should know it better than me.”

A stiff smile made its way onto Victor’s face. “There’s nothing to be worried about -”

“Vitya.” Yakov’s voice was as stern as it got, and Victor seemed to get the hint, standing up straight with the smile faded away. “Get off the ice and sit down.”

VIctor did as he was told, taking a seat on the nearest rinkside bench. He should have known what Yakov expected him to do, yet he did nothing but sit still.

“Take off your skates.”

“Do I have to?”

“Take them off.”

Victor looked like he was about to protest, but he didn’t. As he started undoing his laces, Yakov kneeled down, grabbing one loosened up skating boot. He watched like a hawk as Victor also removed his socks - and sure enough, he could see the deep purple bruising and swelling on one ankle.

“You expected to be able to skate well on this?”

“I thought it wasn’t that bad.”

“It would become ‘that bad’ if you continued skating without doing anything about it,” Yakov practically barked out. “We’re going to the infirmary.”

“But -”

“No ‘but’s. Come on.”

As they walked to the infirmary, Yakov massaged his temples - he’d have thought that Victor was more reasonable than to ignore any signs of non-trivial injuries, that he should have known what could lead from that. But perhaps Victor was still immature in some ways. Impatient. Brash. Yakov looked back over his shoulder - Victor was following him quietly. At least he was following instructions for now.

* * *

 “You’re lucky I stopped you before it got even worse.”

In the infirmary, with only the two of them inside, Yakov examined Victor’s ankle. Definitely not in a state to be jumping in. They would need a doctor to take a look at it soon.

“Just how long have you been practising with this?”

Sitting on the edge of a bed, Victor swung his uninjured foot back and forth. “It started hurting near the end of the week before the last, I think? But it only got to this point a couple of days ago.”

“The end of the week before the last…” A deep frown took root on Yakov’s face. “You’ve been aggravating an injury for that long, and you didn’t say a word? You know you can very well put your career at risk by skating on untreated injuries, right?” Injuries were but a normal occurrence in the sport, and it wasn’t rare for skaters to compete while still recovering from an injury. But simply ignoring your injuries and skating on without doing anything for them was a different story.

Victor still wasn’t looking at him. His eyes were fixated on the movement of his healthy foot. “If we’re talking about hiding the fact that you’re not fully fine,” he said, “haven’t you been doing something similar for some time?”

Yakov wasn’t quite expecting Victor to own up to his mistake straight away, but what he said took him aback even more. “What…”

Victor was now looking straight at him. “You haven’t been re-scheduling training sessions like when it had just happened, but even lately, you still sometimes look out of it. Like your mind’s not fully here.”

It wasn’t something Yakov could fully deny. As irresponsible as it sounded, the divorce had been on his mind even when coaching, and he started feeling guilty that even a student was complaining about it in a roundabout way. “I get your point. My bad. But you’re the one who’s going to be skating and jumping here. Your injuries still need attention. If you did realise it was already starting to get worse, why didn’t you say anything?”

“Before, you’d have noticed that something was wrong with me way earlier.”

“Are you trying to shift the blame onto me?” Yakov asked, incredulous.

Victor’s gaze shifted down. “I just wanted you to notice it.”

Yakov took a deep breath. “Aren’t you a bit too old to be pulling stunts to get attention?”

“I wanted something else for you to notice instead of continuing to get hung up on…”

Victor didn’t finish his sentence, whether it was because he didn’t dare to say the continuation out loud, or deliberately meant to make it even more pointed when left unsaid. Maybe he was even genuinely trying to be considerate. But it wasn’t difficult at all to catch his actual meaning. The first reaction that bubbled up in Yakov was a protest - how easy did you think it would be to suddenly not be with someone you had previously spent so much of your life beside each other? He had been with Lilia for almost as long as Victor was alive. But then, Yakov stopped to consider just how much time had passed. Months? Almost a year? A bit more than that? Was he just excusing his lack of focus after this much time had passed? He looked back at Victor, with his hand patting the space next to him on the bed, as if inviting Yakov to sit next to him. _Why not._

Barely moments after he set himself down on the spot, Yakov could feel Victor leaning against him. “Vitya?”

“Hey, Yakov… rather than just getting hung up on _that_ , why not look at me instead?”

“You think I’m not trying to do that already? All right, as you said I might have been distracted, but I haven’t actually been trying to ignore your training.”

“I’m not talking about just skating.” Victor was now snuggling against his arm, his long lashes fluttering as his gaze shifted upwards. “Everyone looks at me while skating. And looking at me while skating is your job, but… what about when I’m not?”

Yakov simply stared at his student for a moment, dumbfounded. “Are you even listening to what you’re saying?”

“Of course. Isn’t it normal to want someone to notice you in that way? And you look like you can use some of that too.”

“I don’t need that kind of attention from a kid like you.”

“I’m no longer a small kid, though.” Victor now pressed his whole upper body against Yakov’s side, straightening his back as if to show how much he’d grown and prove his point.

“You’re still enough of a brat to pull of that stunt with your ankle for attention.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to?”

Victor was looking up at him again, with those clear blue eyes almost covered by silver strands of hair, his thin lips pursed, and Yakov turned away. Anyone with eyes could see that Victor had grown into a beautiful young man. He didn’t need that pointed out to him, especially not in this situation. He did not need one of his long-time students trying to fool around with him, nor could Victor afford to fool around with anyone, let alone his coach, with the season about to start in full swing.

“You haven’t forgotten what I keep telling everyone about physical relationships during competitive seasons?”

“If that’s your only objection, we don’t even need to go that far. Just… spend more time with me during off days, for example.”

“Unlike _some other coaches_ I can do without a reputation of getting too intimate with my students. And you don’t need that either.”

“If reputation’s what you’re worried about, then we just need to make sure that no one knows, right?”

Victor’s deliberate obliviousness was almost impressive at this point, but his answer wasn’t going to change. “Vitya. Get a hold of yourself and get all these ridiculous ideas out of your head.”

Even so, Victor hadn’t let go of his arm, instead holding it even tighter, a wistful expression on his face. “Can’t we at least… stay longer like this?”

Yakov was about to immediately refuse, but paused when his eyes fell on Victor’s face, when he felt the arms around his own. He knew about Victor’s family, how they were no longer much in touch if at all, and how he had distanced himself from most of his peers the more he rose up in the world of the sport. Was he that desperate for more contact and touch that he resorted to trying to get attention by almost aggravating an injury? Yakov’s thoughts then shifted to himself - how long had it been, for himself, since he had been in contact with someone this closely? How long had it been since he went to sleep with someone else’s warmth by his side? His mind turned back to Victor on the ice, some of his moves reminiscent of Lilia’s, and suddenly his mind was putting Victor in some places Lilia used to be by his side. Which he vehemently tried to steer out of his mind - they both very much did not need the potential fallout of such a mistake. And yet, a part of him still couldn’t deny some of that desire for contact.

“...fine. But just for now.”

“...really?”

Yakov deliberately did not look into Victor’s eyes. “We’re almost at the planned end of the practice session anyway. And you do need to rest your ankle.”

He could feel short nails lightly digging into his sleeve. “Thank you, Yakov.”

After a few moments of the both of them staying still in that position, in the silence of the infirmary, Yakov gradually turned towards Victor, who was burying his face in his arm. Once the small boy who ran around his rink excitedly, and how time had changed him. Yakov moved his other hand, about to touch his hair, hesitating for a few moments, then finally putting his hand on Victor’s head, patting gently. This much should be fine.

“Vitya.”

“Hmm?”

“We’ll get your ankle checked tomorrow.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“And you’ll tell me straight away if something’s bothering you next time. I’ll keep an eye for it too, but you know your body best.”

“Mmm.”

Victor stayed still and silent after that, not budging an inch against him, and Yakov found himself actually not minding the contact. It wasn’t bad having someone this close to him again. Just that. Nothing more. It shouldn’t become anything more, for the good of both of them. And for now, it needed to end before anyone noticed anything.

“Come on, Vitya, get up. It’s time.”


End file.
